Trial of three former Memphis police officers accused in Tyre Nichols' death is about to begin

Jury selection was set to begin Monday in the federal trial of three former Memphis police officers accused of violating the civil rights of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old man whose fatal beating was captured on police body cameras while sparking protests and calls for police reform. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith have pleaded not guilty to charges of depriving Nichols of his rights through excessive force and failure to intervene and obstructing justice through witness tampering. Nichols was stopped in his car in January 2023 and fled from police after being dragged from the vehicle. Police caught up with Nichols and beat him in a Memphis neighborhood, police video shows. Jurors will be selected from a pool of about 200 people. The trial is expected to last three to four weeks and draw media from across the country. Nichols' family is expected to attend the trial. Nichols, who was Black, died in a hospital on Jan. 10, 2023, three days after being kicked, punched and beaten with a police baton. A police video released later that month shows five officers, who are also Black, beating Nichols as he screamed for his mother about a block from his home. The video also shows the officers loitering and talking to each other while Nichols sat on the ground struggling with his injuries. Officers said Nichols was stopped for reckless driving, but the Memphis police chief said there was no evidence to support that claim. Nichols worked for FedEx and he enjoyed skateboarding and photography. An autopsy report showed Nichols died from blows to the head and that the cause of death was homicide. The report described brain injuries as well as cuts and bruises to his head and elsewhere. The three officers now on trial, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., were fired after Nichols' death for violating Memphis Police Department policy. They were members of a crime-fighting unit called the Scorpion Unit, which was disbanded after Nichols' death. Shortly after their firing, the five officers were charged with first-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. They were then indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2023. Mills and Martin have both pleaded guilty in federal court and could testify at the trial. A trial date in state court has not yet been set.